Qantas Customer DON'T care!

[dgwally]

In a few weeks Im due to fly to Hong Kong via Sydney in Business Class (Im in Perth so to fly anywhere with Qantas Int you need to fly domestically first)

All booked and paid via a Travel agent. I attempted to change the PER-SYD flight to an earlier date so I could stay in Sydney before flying to Honkers. The price to change the Ticket was over $1500, I understand the reason for the high price and decided not to change the ticket. The Ticket did allow for Stop-overs and the reason for the high price was due to a change in booking class.

The concern I have is that I was gong to buy another ticket for PER-SYD Economy a few days before my original flight, then fly from SYD-HKG on the original booking. (Basically paying for an extra PER-SYD flight)

This is where I get lost..... Qantas have advised me that if I don't fly PER-SYD on the original booking all my onward flights would be cancelled. Im attempting to give Qantas extra money.... I want to Fly Qantas but nope... can't be done !

I had previously had issues with Qantas and discussed them with Melanie from Customer Care (It took 6 weeks to get a reply from my original contact with CC and that only happened because I called them!) Melanie 'Listened' to my feedback but didn't seem concerned.

I wanted to discuss my PER-SYD issue with Melanie and placed a call to Customer Care. I Was promised a call back... it never happened so I called back. Spoke with Jospehine and she was LESS than helpful. Actually she really had a poor attitude and Im sure I interrupted her Friday arvo drinks.

My experience with Qantas goes up and down... lately its going down and rather fast!

I know there are Fare Rule, and only some things can be done.. but honestly Qantas... The one thing you can do is LISTEN to your customers, treat them with the same loyalty they show you!

 

[cmon0005]

All booked and paid via a Travel agent. I attempted to change the PER-SYD flight to an earlier date so I could stay in Sydney before flying to Honkers. The price to change the Ticket was over $1500, I understand the reason for the high price and decided not to change the ticket. The Ticket did allow for Stop-overs and the reason for the high price was due to a change in booking class.

I see your predicament, not being an expert in these things, but the key word here is that you booked via a travel agent and considering the journey has not yet commenced I would have thought it would be the TA's responsibility to action any changes and deal with any ticket re-issues. Again I'm not an expert so don't know. Have you spoken with your TA?

 

[harvyk]

If the booking is via a TA, then the TA "owns" the booking at least until you fly. All changes will need to be done via the TA. QF provided you with good advice, failure to board your original PER-SYD flight does mean the whole trip would have been automatically cancelled, that said it is more than possible to have a TA cancel just the first leg of a trip and keep the rest of the booking (I've done it in the past with FC of all places).

As for "Jospehine", that's just customer care in general. It shouldn't be the case, they should be providing you with a consistent experience, however that is not always the case.

 

[dgwally]

yeah... Travel Agent has looked at flight changes & Costs. I understand the higher costs to change the flights. I just can't justify $1500 to fly a few days early.. What I don't understand why all flights would be cancelled if I don't fly the first leg. My TA has said that would happen and I have confirmed with Qantas

I believe its a Qantas decision/process to cancel the onward flights if you don't fly the first leg.

 

[BD1959]

Have you spoken with your TA?

Just hope it's not Expedia!!

16 weeks after a cancelled flight still waiting for a refund ....

Regards,

BD

 

[DC3]

From memory it's pretty standard across airlines to cancel all of the remaining sectors if you fail to board any flight that forms part of that booking. Someone please correct me if I've got this wrong.

 

[dgwally]

From memory it's pretty standard across airlines to cancel all of the remaining sectors if you fail to board any flight that forms part of that booking. Someone please correct me if I've got this wrong.

I can understand the 'Fail to Board' rule, however Im actually telling Qantas I flew earlier on Qantas... so surely they can do something.

 

[yohy?!]

i have heard of people "accidentally" missing the first leg and then calling the airline to let them know they have made alternative arrangements so they can stop the auto-cancelling of the remaining sectors, haven't done it myself with Qantas though

in regards to the customer care aspect, that's just qantas these days and hardly a surprise given their approach to employee engagement and hr....

 

[cmon0005]

I believe its a Qantas decision/process to cancel the onward flights if you don't fly the first leg.

This is quite common if not the case all the time with all major airlines, unless your fare conditions say otherwise (Flex).

Think you will have to just accept the current flight bookings or pay the extra to change and take it on as a learning for next time.
We've all had things like this happen in one way or another in the past, and you learn from it and do things differently next time, thats the advantage of AFF, we're here to help with our collective knowledge..

Best of luck, let us know what you end up doing.

 

[harvyk]

It's a standard across pretty much all airlines. An individual airlines doesn't really know what your full travel arrangements are, however they assume that if you failed to board for your A-B flight, you won't be in B for your B-C flight, thus they now have an extra seat that they can sell. By letting that airline know specifically that you'll already be in B and thus don't need the A-B component of the fare they will cancel just the A-B component leaving the rest of the itin in place. Unless itineraries are linked as part of the booking QF won't know that you have booked a PER-SYD a few days earlier, yes it might be the same person, but they don't know what other arrangements you might have in place between your first PER-SYD and your second.

In terms of what you should do, 1 ask the TA to cancel the PER-SYD leg of your original ticket. State this specifically and do not assume that simply booking another PER-SYD one way will automatically cancel your next PER-SYD flight (you could have made alternate arrangements to get back to PER to connect with the original flight), this will keep the rest of your itin in place. Then book the new PER-SYD flight as a separate flight on a different ticket for a few days earlier.

 

[dgwally]

its is a learning... the sad thing Im learning is that Qantas really don't care!

Rules.. Understand them.... The 'Fail to Board' totally get it... attitude and lack of Service from Qantas... Don get that!

 

[mannej]

I believe its a Qantas decision/process to cancel the onward flights if you don't fly the first leg.

I feel that your thread title is misleading if this is the crux of your issue.

This is fairly standard practise amongst the industry. You will see threads pop up from time to time about this.

 

[RooFlyer]

Seems to me that the OP acknowledges the Fare Rule but is substantially pointing out the poor attitude, in their view, of Qantas Customer Care when they called.
No matter what the outcome or rules, there is a difference between responding to a call with the attitude along the lines of "So what, tough luck" and at least sounding sympathetic and trying to make the caller less cheesed off.

I've mentioned before the difference between airlines and most banks these days. I still have issues with banks, but when I call I am at worst dis-armed and at best quite satisfied with the outcome.

 

[harvyk]

its is a learning... the sad thing Im learning is that Qantas really don't care!

How exactly did QF not care? Was it simply Melanie not calling back or Jospehine seeming a little disinterested?
I don't mean to be rude about it, but is this a thread for resolving the problem and getting the result you want, or is this simply a QF bashing thread?

 

[dgwally]

I feel that your thread title is misleading if this is the crux of your issue.

This is fairly standard practise amongst the industry. You will see threads pop up from time to time about this.

My ticketing issue does suck and have learnt from it... The crux of my issue is Qantas having no interest in Customers.

How they treat & interact with their customers is often very poor.

My ticketing issue has highlighted this for me.

Its a struggle to be loyal to an airline that shows no loyalty to its customers!

 

[ozbeachbabe]

If the booking is via a TA, then the TA "owns" the booking at least until you fly. All changes will need to be done via the TA.

QF provided you with good advice, failure to board your original PER-SYD flight does mean the whole trip would have been automatically cancelled, that said it is more than possible to have a TA cancel just the first leg of a trip and keep the rest of the booking (I've done it in the past with FC of all places).

Exactly. If the TA cancels the PER/SYD flight not required then you aren't a no show so the rest of the flights won't get cancelled.

 

[DC3]

Exactly. If the TA cancels the PER/SYD flight not required then you aren't a no show so the rest of the flights won't get cancelled.

What's the T/A doing for the client? What do the fare rules say?


Edit: QF will only deal with the agent/person who directly made the booking as far as I know. Not with the passenger if using a T/A.

 

[dgwally]

QF bashing thread?

Im far from a Qantas basher!

Im one of those tragic Qantas supporters... Im flying to Hong Kong via Sydney/ Melbourne (15 hours) just to Fly Qantas... I could fly Cathay direct for the same price and in 8 hours!

The reason for the 'Qantas Customer DON'T Care' is because thats how I feel

 

[DC3]

Not sure why you are using a T/A, but we all have our own reasons I guess.

Maybe a better thread title:

"My T/A doesn't care", or "My T/A won't help me".

 

[dgwally]

I feel my TA does care... they didn't offer to cancel the PER-SYD flight (will follow this up) but my interactions and service from my TA has been fantastic. So thanks to AFF my TA may learn something

Qantas DON'T care because...

• It takes over 6 weeks to get a reply to an email - Even then the reply is because I chased them up
• Josephine/Melanie have attitude and show very little interest in customers
• You get promised a call back that never happens
• They didn't look for solutions, they stuck to process (Solution was to cancel PER-SYD via TA)
• You are made to feel like you are interrupting Qantas Customer Care
• Was promised an email from Josephine confirming she has passed on my call to Melanie (Still not received the email)

These are just points from my last interaction with Qantas, Im sorry to say that its not the first time that I have received this low level of service from them.

Once again.. not Qantas bashing... just trying to highlight an issue that I think impacts many! Why have a 'Customer Care' department that really doesn't care about the customer!